Wayne Perkins' Uncredited Solo on 'Brown Sugar' and the Rolling Stones' Use of Session Players

For decades, guitar nerds argued over who played the slippery, raw solo on “Brown Sugar.” Keith Richards? Mick Taylor? Nope. It was a session guitarist named Wayne Perkins, a Muscle Shoals regular who happened to be in the studio when the Stones cut the track in December 1969. He laid down that solo on a borrowed Telecaster, got paid $75, and never saw a credit. The band didn’t even tell him the song was released until a friend heard it on the radio.

The confusion stuck because the Stones